GERRY MODDEJONGE, QMI Agency

EDMONTON - There might be brand new turf at Commonwealth Stadium, but it got old fast for Ricky Ray.

It’s hard to blame the Edmonton Eskimos quarterback after he was sacked five times in Sunday’s 25-10 loss to the B.C. Lions.

“Going through preseason, it seemed like we were just having our way with what we wanted to do. (Sunday) night was a little bit different, we just couldn’t find the rhythm that we wanted, we just couldn’t get anything going.”

Forget just stalling out, at times they were going in reverse.

The first sack came on first-and-goal on their opening drive by Lions linebacker Korey Banks, causing Ray to fumble the ball away to defensive end Keron Williams.

“It’s part of football, it’s a physical sport,” Ray said.

“I’d love to go the whole season without taking a big crunch like that but it’s going to happen. You’ve just got to be aware that it’s a violent game out there.”

Ray fumbled away any chance at making a comeback late in the game on a similar sack by linebacker Anton McKenzie, which was recovered by linebacker Anthony Reddick.

“We (had Monday) to review the film and correct any mistakes that we made and (Wednesday) it’s getting on to Montreal,” Ray said.

“The good thing is you get a day to kind of feel bad about yourself and fix some things but we’ve got to move on. Football you play once a week so you’ve got to put things behind you and keep moving forward.”

But that’s hard to do when you’re trailing the entire game and give up three fumbles and two turnovers-on-downs.

“We turned the ball over five times, we had no turnovers in return and then we gave up far too many plays defensively,” Hall said.

“When you take those into account, you can’t sit there and say you’re going to win the football game.”